Iva Simčić

-b. 1974. in Sarajevo. Simčić is a visual artist and theoretician. Holds a BFA in Painting/ Printmaking from the University of Illinois at Chicago, a MFA in Painting/ Printmaking from Yale University School Of Art, and a PhD in Theory of Arts and Media from the University of Arts in Belgrade. Employed as an Associate Professor at the Academy of Visual Arts Sarajevo. She is a participant in numerous exhibitions and receiver of several prestigious awards and scholarships, such as Mostar Grand Prix 2011. (14th Annual drawing exhibition Mostar), Jacob K. Javits Fellowship Award in Studio Arts, Robert Schoelkopf Memorial Traveling Fellowship, Yale University Scholarship, Illinois Art Council Artist Fellowship Award in Visual Arts.

My practice is deeply ingrained in daily observations of ordinary, mundane things. Often, I investigate the myths that lie beneath the surface fueling the prosaic and driving the ordinary. As the mundane feeds on these myths while simultaneously perpetuating them, they become internalized, shaping conventional ideas and accepted behavior. It seems that mythologies (in the broadest sense) and the everyday mundane exist in a loop operating both within—and perhaps beyond—common space and time.

Sometimes I consider art’s relationship with politics and the political to be one of these myths.12

Sometimes, I use text to further my inquiries and advance my explorations.

I frequently search for concealed regulatory systems that exploit and co-opt the intimate and personal — emotions, thoughts, ethics, and individual traits—in order to further expand their covert ideological grip. Deeply indebted to internalized mythologies, these systems extend their jurisdiction, taking a firm hold of the intimate, which has come to be regarded as a key reference point for ever-evolving relations of production. As the boundaries between the conventional and the intimate implode, they remain concealed behind familiar appearances of the usual, the common and the ordinary.  

The premise of one of my latest works, One Day I’ll Buy You an Asteroid, is the idea that basic human emotions—such as love— personal assets—such as creativity— or personal self-development processes—such as self-empowerment — can be, and often are, used as tools of coercion to perpetuate dominant power relations. 

Inspired by Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, and utilising different media —silkscreen prints, paintings/collages, and sculptures— I explore the subordination and transformation of human emotions into means that serve dominant relations of production.

For instance, juxtapositions of two famous excerpts from the gothic novel, fragments from the contemporary Family Law of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and several decontextualized paragraphs from precarious work contracts, expose the pervasive nature of dominant social structures through the (un)spoken and (un)written—but heavily implied—notion of debt or indebtedness, disguised as romanticized, passionate, yet fundamentally abusive love.345678

I articulate my ideas through various media—primarily painting, drawing, printmaking, and occasionally photography and sculpture.

Although both my undergraduate and graduate studies focused on painting, I consider my relationship with it to be a complex one. 

Sometimes, I find painting to be a suitable medium for exploring our contemporary post-political reality (for instance, I perceive virtual frontiers as substitutes for landscapes).91011121314

Other times, I am interested in developing the contextual frameworks and pretexts for my painting as a practice. 

Having engaged in several collaborations, I find their diverse contextual starting points to be of particular interest to me.

The collaborative project Color me…  embodies both of these interests. Initiated by an essay by Anamarija Batista, this work draws from the formal and conceptual concerns of 20th-century Color Field Painting, which can easily be applied to our contemporary social landscape where our physical, mental, and emotional isolation can be instantly connected to the ever-expanding society of spectacle. Accustomed to perceiving fragmented images—presented as shapes, planes of color, spots, stains, and excerpts existing in their own right, seemingly unrelated and devoid of content and meaning—we, as a collective, are prevented from establishing meaningful relationships with the world around us. We often tend not to observe the interconnectedness of things or the expansiveness of the whole until we are awestruck or alarmed. A striking appearance of the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) over southeastern Europe on November 5th, 2023, imposed itself as “a fragment of a larger continuum”.15 The work Color me… references “a sense of expansiveness and ‘all-overness’”16 that Color Field abstraction from the 1940s and 1950s sought to achieve. It aims to evoke Rothko’s mystical spaces, Still’s mesmerizing wilderness landscapes, and Newman’s invocation of the infinite through a “bodily” sensual experience—a zone “whose limits are defined only by the radiance of hue”.1718192021222324 

In contrast, a multi-medial collaborative project Measure for Measure, stems from an entirely different conceptual premise, thematizing notions of collaboration, productivity and value. Relying on distinctly different methodologies that reflect our personal interests, each of us engaged in a competitive process of measuring the (un)perceived/(un)recognized value of our productive (artistic) work processes, assessing our contribution to the artistic project as a whole, while simultaneously reevaluating the notion of (un)productivity itself. By carefully recording, tracing, documenting, and systematizing the collected data, I have aimed to measure the work (my work) and its (un)recognized conceptual—and monetary— value in relation to the work of another (my collaborative partner).25262728

In my work, I search for points of tension between the conventional and the personal, the “universal” and the intimate, the common and the individual. These points of tension could very well be where art becomes political.

The text was written in consultancy with Adna Muslija (2024).

1Iva Simčić, Art, Politics and Other Stories # 1, silkscreen, pencil and marker on paper, 70cm x 50cm (27.5“x 19.6“), 2017
2Iva Simčić, Art, Politics and Other Stories # 2, silkscreen, pencil and marker on paper,  70cm x 50cm (27.5“x 19.6“), 2017
3Iva Simčić, One Day I’ll Buy You an Asteroid # 1, silkscreen on paper, 70cm x 100 cm (27.5“ x 39“), 2023 
4Iva Simčić, One Day I’ll Buy You an Asteroid # 2, silkscreen on paper, 70cm x 100 cm (27.5“ x 39“), 2023 
5Iva Simčić, One Day I’ll Buy You an Asteroid # 3, silkscreen on paper, 70cm x 100 cm (27.5“ x 39“), 2023
6Iva Simčić, Structural Adjustment, ceramic belt buckles (from One Day I’ll Buy You an Asteroid series), 9cm x 13cm each (3.5“ x 5.2“), 2023-2024
7Iva Simčić, She the Wolf #1, photo transfer on panel (from One Day I’ll Buy You an Asteroid series), 24cm x 18cm (9.5“ x 7.1“), 2023
8Iva Simčić, She the Wolf #2, pencil drawing and photo transfer on panel (from One Day I’ll Buy You an Asteroid series), 24cm x 18cm (9.5“ x 7.1“), 2023
9Iva Simčić, ProEvolution #1, mix media on canvas (vellum, pencil, markers, acrylic, photo collage), 30cm x 20cm (11.8“ x 7.9“), 2012
10Iva Simčić, ProEvolution #2, mix media on canvas (vellum, pencil, markers, acrylic, photo collage), 30cm x 20cm (11.8“ x 7.9“), 2012
11Iva Simčić, Horizon(tal) #2, mix media on canvas, 120cm x 100cm (47“ x 39“), 2020
12Iva Simčić, Horizon(tal) #3, mix media on canvas, 120cm x 100cm (47“ x 39“), 2024
13Iva Simčić, Horizon(tal) #3, detail, mix media on canvas, 120cm x 100cm (47“ x 39“), 2024
14Iva Simčić, Horizontal #4, mix media on canvas, 120cm x 100cm (47“ x 39“), 2024-2025
15 Wilkin, Karen and Belz, Carl, Color as Field: American Painting, 1950-1975, American Federation of Arts/Yale University Press, 2007, p. 23.
16Ibid
17Ibid
18Iva Simčić with Ana Marija Batista, Color me…, Installation, 300cm x 400cm (118“ x 157.5“), 2024
19Iva Simčić with Ana Marija Batista, Color me…, detail #1, 300cm x 400cm (118“ x 157.5“), 2024
20Iva Simčić with Ana Marija Batista, Color me…, detail #2, 300cm x 400cm (118“ x 157.5“), 2024
21Iva Simčić with Ana Marija Batista, Color me…, detail #3, 300cm x 400cm (118“ x 157.5“), 2024
22Iva Simčić with Ana Marija Batista, Color me…, detail #4, 300cm x 400cm (118“ x 157.5“), 2024
23Iva Simčić with Ana Marija Batista, The Northern Lights Seen from the Southern Hemisphere #1, photo collage on silkscreen (from the series Color me…), 50cm x 70cm (19.6“ x 27.5“), 2024
24Iva Simčić with Ana Marija Batista, The Northern Lights Seen from the Southern Hemisphere #2, photo collage on silkscreen (from the series Color me…), 70cm x 50 cm (27.5“ x 19.6“), 2024
25Iva Simčić, Measure for Measure, 50 frottage drawings on China paper, bound, dimensions variable, 2018
26Iva Simčić, Measure for Measure, 50 frottage drawings on China paper, bound, dimensions variable, 2018
27Iva Simčić with Irena Sladoje, Measure for Measure, gold plaque engraved on pannel, panel dimensions 30cm x 24cm (11.8“ x 9.5“)
28Iva Simčić, Hold That Thought, rubber stamp on wall, 2018

-r.1974. u Sarajevu. Simčić je vizualna umjetnica i teoretičarka umjetnosti. Diplomirala je na University of Illinois at Chicago, odsjek slikarstvo/grafika, magistrirala na Yale University School of Art, a doktorirala na odsjeku za Teoriju umetnosti i medija Univerziteta umetnosti u Beogradu. Zaposlena kao vanredni profesor na Akademiji likovnih umjetnosti u Sarajevu. Učesnica brojnih izložbi i dobitnica nekoliko prestižnih nagrada i stipendija poput: Mostar Grand Prix 2011. (14. Anale crteža Mostar), Jacob K. Javits Fellowship Award in Studio Arts, Robert Schoelkopf Memorial Traveling Fellowship, Yale University Scholarship, Illinois Art Council Artist Fellowship Award in Visual Arts.

Moj umjetnički rad je duboko ukorijenjen u zamjećivanju svakodnevnih, jednoličnih pojava. Često istražujem, uvjetno nazvano mitove, koji se kriju ispod površine stvari, potiču prozaično i pokreću uobičajeno. Dok se jednoličnost istovremeno hrani ovim mitovima i produžava njihovo postojanje, njihova internalizacija oblikuje konvencionalne ideje i prihvatljivo ponašanje. Čini se da mitologije (u širem smislu riječi) i ustaljena svakodnevica djeluju u nekoj vrsti loop-a, unutar, a možda i izvan, zajedničkog prostora i vremena. 

Ponekad u svom radu promišljam odnos umjetnosti i politike, jer je političnost jedan od gore spomenutih mitova. 12

Ponekad se koristim tekstom kako bih proširila svoje interese i unaprijedila vlastita istraživanja.

Često tragam za skrivenim regulatornim sustavima koji eksploatiraju i kooptiraju intimno i osobno – emocije, misli, etiku, te individualne osobine – u cilju produbljivanja i nametanja svog prikrivenog ideološkog utjecaja. Ovi sustavi, koji su u ovisničkom odnosu naspram internaliziranih mitologija, proširuju svoju ovlast tako što se čvrsto drže aspekta intimnog, koji se pak smatra ključnom referentnom točkom za stalno razvijajuće odnose proizvodnje. Kako se granice konvencionalnog i intimnog urušavaju, ti sustavi ostaju skriveni iza poznatih pojava svakodnevnog, zajedničkog i uobičajenog.

Moj najnoviji rad, One Day I’ll Buy You an Asteroid, počiva na premisi da osnovne ljudske emocije poput ljubavi, osobni resursi kao što je kreativnost, ili procesi vlastitog samorazvoja odnosno samoosnaživanja, mogu biti, i često bivaju, iskorišteni kao instrumenti prinude za održavanje dominantnih odnosa moći. Nadahnuta romanom Orkanski visovi od Emily Brontë i koristeći različite medije — serigrafiju, slikarstvo/kolaž i skulpturu — kreiram rad kojim istražujem transformaciju i podčinjenost emocija sredstvima koja služe dominantnim odnosima proizvodnje. Na primjer, uspoređujući dva poznata odlomka iz gotičkog romana, te fragmente iz Obiteljskog zakona Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine sa nekoliko dekontekstualiziranih paragrafa iz prekarnih ugovora, razotkrivam sveprožimajuću prirodu dominantnih društvenih struktura. Kroz (ne)izgovoreno i (ne)napisano — ali uvelike implicirano — poimanje duga ili zaduženja je prerušeno u romantiziranu, strastvenu, ali suštinski nasilničku ljubav. 345678

Svoje ideje izražavam kroz različite medije – prvenstveno slikarstvo, crtež i grafiku, a povremeno i kroz fotografiju i skulpturu.

Iako su moj dodiplomski i diplomski studiji usmjereni na slikarstvo, osobni odnos prema tom mediju smatram kompleksnim. Ponekad mi se čini da je slikarstvo prikladan medij za istraživanje naše postpolitičke stvarnosti: primjer toga je vlastiti doživljaj virtualnih prostora koje poimam kao nove krajolike.91011121314

U drugim slučajevima, zanima me razvijanje kontekstualnih okvira i  izgovora za moje slikarstvo kao umjetničku praksu. 

Kroz suradnju s drugim autorima, otkrila sam da su mi raznolika kontekstualna polazišta naših zajedničkih projekata posebno zanimljiva.

Zajednički projekt Color me… utjelovljuje oba ova interesa. Iniciran esejem Anamarije Batiste, projekt nastaje neposredno iz formalnih i konceptualnih pitanja slikarstva obojenog polja 20. stoljeća. Ovaj umjetnički rad lako se može primijeniti na naš suvremeni društveni krajolik, gdje se naša fizička, mentalna i emocionalna izolacija može povezati sa sveprožimajućim društvom spektakla. Mi smo naviknuti usvajati fragmentirane slike u vidu oblika, ploha boja, točaka, mrlja i isječaka koji postoje sami za sebe, naizgled nepovezani, te lišeni sadržaja i značenja. Kao kolektiv spriječeni smo formirati smislene odnose sa svijetom oko sebe. Često izbjegavamo primijetiti međusobnu povezanost stvari ili rastezljivost cjeline sve dok nas nešto ne zapanji ili uznemiri. Upečatljiva pojava aurore borealis (sjeverne zore) nad jugoistočnom Europom 5. studenog 2023. godine nametnula se kao “fragment većeg kontinuuma”.15 Rad Color me… se referira na “osjećaj proširenosti i ‘sveobuhvatnosti'”16 koji je apstrakcija obojenog polja 1940. – 1950. težila postići: on evocira mistične prostore M. Rothka, očaravajuće krajolike divljine Stilla, te Newmanovo prizivanje beskonačnog kroz tjelesno osjetilno iskustvo – zone “čije su granice definirane samo sjajem nijanse”.1718192021222324

Nasuprot tome, multimedijalni zajednički projekt Measure for Measure proizlazi iz potpuno drugačije konceptualne premise, baveći se pojmovima suradnje, produktivnosti i vrijednosti. Oslanjajući se na potpuno različite metodologije koje odražavaju interese obje autorice, svaka od nas je uključena u natjecateljski proces mjerenja (ne)usvojene/(ne)prepoznate vrijednosti vlastitih produktivnih (umjetničkih) radnih procesa. Time se procjenjuje osobni doprinos umjetničkom projektu u cjelini, istovremeno propitujući sam pojam (ne)produktivnosti. Pažljivim bilježenjem, praćenjem, dokumentiranjem i sistematiziranjem prikupljenih podataka pokušala sam izmjeriti rad (vlastiti rad) i njegovu (ne)prepoznatu konceptualnu i novčanu vrijednost u odnosu na rad drugog (suautorice). 25262728

U svom umjetničkom radu tragam za točkama napetosti između konvencionalnog i osobnog, univerzalnog i intimnog, zajedničkog i individualnog. Ove točke napetosti lako mogu biti ono što umjetnost čini političnom.

S engleskog prevela Silvija Dervišefendić

Tekst je napisan u konsultaciji s Adnom Muslija (2024).

1Iva Simčić, Art, Politics and Other Stories # 1, sitotisak, olovka i marker na papiru, 70cm x 50cm (27.5“x 19.6“), 2017
2Iva Simčić, Art, Politics and Other Stories # 2, sitotisak, olovka i marker na papiru,  70cm x 50cm (27.5“x 19.6“), 2017
3Iva Simčić, One Day I’ll Buy You an Asteroid # 1, sitotisak na papiru, 70cm x 100 cm (27.5“ x 39“), 2023 
4Iva Simčić, One Day I’ll Buy You an Asteroid # 2, sitotisak na papiru, 70cm x 100 cm (27.5“ x 39“), 2023 
5Iva Simčić, One Day I’ll Buy You an Asteroid # 3, sitotisak na papiru, 70cm x 100 cm (27.5“ x 39“), 2023
6Iva Simčić, Structural Adjustment, keramičke kopče za kaiš (iz serije One Day I’ll Buy You an Asteroid), 9cm x 13cm each (3.5“ x 5.2“), 2023-2024
7Iva Simčić, She the Wolf #1, foto transfer na panelu (iz serije One Day I’ll Buy You an Asteroid), 24cm x 18cm (9.5“ x 7.1“), 2023
8Iva Simčić, She the Wolf #2, crtež olovkom i foto transfer na panelu (iz serije One Day I’ll Buy You an Asteroid), 24cm x 18cm (9.5“ x 7.1“), 2023
9Iva Simčić, ProEvolution #1, kombinovana tehnika na platnu (paus papir, olovka, markeri, akril, foto-kolaž), 30cm x 20cm (11.8“ x 7.9“), 2012
10Iva Simčić, ProEvolution #2, kombinovana tehnika na platnu (paus papir, olovka, markeri, akril, foto-kolaž), 30cm x 20cm (11.8“ x 7.9“), 2012
11Iva Simčić, Horizon(tal) #2, kombinovana tehnika na platnu, 120cm x 100cm (47“ x 39“), 2020
12Iva Simčić, Horizon(tal) #3, kombinovana tehnika na platnu, 120cm x 100cm (47“ x 39“), 2024
13Iva Simčić, Horizon(tal) #3, detalj, kombinovana tehnika na platnu, 120cm x 100cm (47“ x 39“), 2024
14Iva Simčić, Horizontal #4, kombinovana tehnika na platnu, 120cm x 100cm (47“ x 39“), 2024-2025
15 Wilkin, Karen and Belz, Carl, Color as Field: American Painting, 1950-1975, American Federation of Arts/Yale University Press, 2007, p. 23.
16Ibid
17Ibid
18Iva Simčić i Ana Marija Batista, Color me…, Instalacija, 300cm x 400cm (118“ x 157.5“), 2024
19Iva Simčić i Ana Marija Batista, Color me…, detalj #1, 300cm x 400cm (118“ x 157.5“), 2024
20Iva Simčić i Ana Marija Batista, Color me…, detalj #2, 300cm x 400cm (118“ x 157.5“), 2024
21Iva Simčić i Ana Marija Batista, Color me…, detalj #3, 300cm x 400cm (118“ x 157.5“), 2024
22Iva Simčić i Ana Marija Batista, Color me…, detalj #4, 300cm x 400cm (118“ x 157.5“), 2024
23Iva Simčić i Ana Marija Batista, The Northern Lights Seen from the Southern Hemisphere #1, foto kolaž na sitotisku (iz serije Color me…), 50cm x 70cm (19.6“ x 27.5“), 2024
24Iva Simčić i Ana Marija Batista, The Northern Lights Seen from the Southern Hemisphere #2, foto kolaž na sitotisku (iz serije Color me…), 70cm x 50 cm (27.5“ x 19.6“), 2024
25Iva Simčić, Measure for Measure, 50 frotaž crteža na kineskom papiru, uvez, dimenzije varijabilne, 2018
26Iva Simčić, Measure for Measure, 50 frotaž crteža na kineskom papiru, uvez, dimenzije varijabilne, 2018
27Iva Simčić i Irena Sladoje, Measure for Measure, zlatna ploča gravirana na panelu, dimenzije panela 30cm x 24cm (11.8“ x 9.5“)
28Iva Simčić, Hold That Thought, pečat na zidu, 2018